In years to come, there’s little doubt 2023 will be looked upon as one of the more momentous periods in Australia’s modern beer history – even compared to those that preceded it, complete with fires, floods and lockdowns.
It was a year in which the industry witnessed all manner of changes: sales, closures, openings, administrations, crowdfunds, reworked business models, you name it.
Among them was an international merger / acquisition that didn’t cause the sort of shockwaves sparked whenever an Aussie craft brand is snapped up by Asahi or Kirin, yet still offers a fascinating insight into the evolving nature of the global landscape.
Southern Highlands Brewing (SHB), based in regional New South Wales, merged into Powder Monkey, a relatively young brewing company based on the south coast of England. And if that sounds an unlikely union, things become clearer once you understand the background to the coming together as well as their future plans.
The respective owners – Ben Twomey of SHB and Mike McGeever of Powder Monkey – have a shared history in the corporate world stretching back long before either of them entered the world of brewing. They’ve worked and launched businesses together, both in London and Dubai, and it was during a catch-up in Perth in 2019 that the former recommended the latter get into brewing so he could integrate his own beers into his UK pubs.
The timing couldn’t have been much worse, however; COVID’s arrival and the subsequent lengthy lockdowns in the UK led Mike to ask of Ben: “What have you got me into?”
Their friendship survived, however, and Mike’s business grew, later partnering with former England Rugby hooker Steve Thomson on the Hop & Hooker line of beers, as well as producing beers for some of the UK’s armed forces.
All well and good, you might say, but what has this got to do with the craft beer scene in Australia?
Which brings us back to their merger: Mike wanted to bring Powder Monkey to Australia, and Ben could see how helping facilitate that would open up greater possibilities for Southern Highland Brewing – the brewing company he’d launched in 2016 – both here and in the UK.
At the time of writing, SHB beers are still brewed in the same shed on Ben’s 25-acre Sutton Forest property they've been brewed in since 2016. They're sold predominantly around the Southern Highlands region of NSW as well as in Greater Sydney, Newcastle, Canberra and Wollongong. In time, however, the 20-hectolitre brewery will be moved to a new brewpub location in the southwestern suburbs of Sydney, which will become the base for Powder Monkey’s Australian operation while continuing to brew Ben’s beers too.
Beyond that, the plan is to open more taprooms inspired by the pubs of the UK.
“When I lived in London for five years,” Ben says, “you had the local. And no one does the local better than the Brits and Irish.
“They create that real community, and that’s where we want to go.”
For now, however, the best place to experience a range of his beers on tap is at the Highlands Taphouse in Moss Vale's. It was first opened as a home for Southern Highland Brewing in 2017, after they renovated a site in the town’s main street previously occupied by a wine bar and a steakhouse. Ownership was transferred to new owners in late 2022, but SHB beers still pour through most of the taps and you’ll find references to the brewery throughout.
It’s a space with a vintage vibe, from the tiled floors and walls to the green upholstered chairs lining the window seats, the sofas and armchairs creating a private club feel at one end, and the banquette seating underneath Southern Highlands Brewing-themed kangaroo wallpaper at the other. There’s classic beer memorabilia and bursts of neon dotting the walls, and greenery amid the flashes of brass. Out front, there’s street-side seating for watching the world go by, while the bar and kitchen serving gastropub food sit at the rear beyond long, beer hall-style tables.
As for the nature of Southern Highlands’ beers, they occupy two camps. The core range hoves closely to classical styles – pales, a porter, a blonde ale, for example – and is presented in suitably straightforward cans. And then there’s the seasonal and limited releases, where both liquid and labels can be more left field: a Japanese IIPA brewed for GABS, descriptions coming in the form of poetry or a haiku.
Initially, they were brewed on a 200-litre Braumeister feeding a mere 1,000 litres worth of fermentation space; within months, that was more than doubled before the second expansion saw Ben step up to the 20-hectolitre brewhouse and 14,000 litres of fermentation capacity set to move an hour to the north to the proposed Powder Monkey site.
Once established in Sydney’s southwest, Ben’s says he’ll look at opening a brewpub in the Southern Highlands as a means of keeping the region’s local brewery local. And, just maybe, he'll look at launching his passion project – complete with kangaroo logo – in the country that inspired his love for good beer in the first place.
James Smith
